a spring wedding
by a-perfect-melody
Summary: "It's a spring wedding, that's what they're telling her." / Hermione misses Ron and her heart's breaking because of it. One sided RonHermione.


[_Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and accept no credit towards it. I am not J.K. Rowling nor am I in any way affiliated with her._]

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a spring wedding

so, I was hoping to a fluffy piece published by now but clearly that's gone down the drain. I've got several happy, teeth-rottingly sugary sweet fics in progress which I hope to have finished by the end of October. In the meantime, enjoy the abundance of angst my brain decided to create!

minor swearing, but other than that, no major warnings necessary.

word count (without a/n): 1,367

prompts below.

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_without further ado..._

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It's a spring wedding.

At least, that's what they're all telling her.

Parvati says it'll be fun.

A chance to forget themselves after the war.

Ginny, who's always understood a little better, says it's for the best.

Hermione's not so sure, but for her friends' sakes, she laughs and nods and dutifully squeals when Lavender flashes her the ring.

She smiles at Ron and ducks out of the room, biting the inside of her cheek so hard she can taste blood

.

She busies herself.

She throws herself headlong into her studies at Hogwarts and disappears into library for days on end, for so long that Professor McGonagall has to check she's still sleeping properly.

It's not enough to distract herself, but it's a start.

And it's away; it's far away from her friends and their well-meaning pity glances, and it's far enough away from _him_ that she can almost forget how her heart skipped whenever his hand touched hers.

Harry visits often, which is both a blessing and a curse.

He proves an excellent distraction; he rambles on about Quidditch for hours on end, along with endless stories about his auror training, which she's grateful for, but she can tell he has to catch himself.

"I think you'd like it, Hermione, they've got a great library in Head Office, with loads of these old research papers and even Ro-"

And then he inevitably flushes and changes the subject and she doesn't know what's worse; that their best friend's name is now a taboo word, or that Harry can't seem to act normal around her anymore.

She stops him visiting in the end, because she can't stand the hurt that clouds his eyes every time she skips around Ron's name.

.

In the end, Hogwarts succumbs to _him_ too.

She can't go anywhere without remembering him, the space where he ate breakfast every year for six years, the chair in the common room he always sat in to do homework.

Hogwarts isn't her escape from him anymore and she hates it (and herself) perhaps more than she can tell.

.

At Christmas, she goes home for the holidays for the first time in two years.

Her parents fuss, more than they used to when she was younger.

("_More gravy? More pudding? More hugs?_")

She doesn't think they completely understand, but she's grateful that they're trying.

She sends the happy couple a Christmas card, and, after some consideration, a scarf for Ron, and a bracelet for Lavender.

It feels strange not to be celebrating Christmas with her friends but, as Harry grudgingly tells her over a long telephone call, Ron and Lavender could hardly keep their hands off each other.

So, she agrees it was probably for the best, anyway.

.

She sits in her room on New Year's Eve.

There's a photo of the three on them still on her mantelpiece; the famous golden trio, still innocent and baby-faced in their third year.

An ache engulfs her, crashes into her like a tsunami, and, suddenly she blinks, and he's there again; squeezing her hand whilst trapped in the vault at Gringotts, kissing her till she goes dizzy just before the Battle of Hogwarts.

She blinks then, and the world around her melts into Hogsmeade visits, and DA lessons, and arguments mellowed by tentative smiles in the common room.

.

And it's April 21st and there's still a wedding.

"One week!" Lavender shrieks over the drinks Hermione had tried extremely hard (and failed) to worm out of.

("No excuses!" Lavender had trilled in her note. "It's been too long!")

Lavender buys the first round and Hermione notices that she's gone to extra lengths to meet in Hermione's favourite pub.

And that's maybe the worst part.

Lavender isn't a bitch and Hermione can't hate her, no matter how much she wants to.

No matter how much this ache is clawing up her throat and trying to drown her inside out.

Lavender doesn't show off the ring anytime she gets (at least not after Ginny pulled her aside last August and muttered a few choice words) and they go almost the whole evening without mentioning his name.

"So, it's a bit awkward," Lavender says hesitantly, at 11 o clock, and she's slightly tipsy. "But you have saved next Saturday in your diary, yeah?"

Hermione puts her drink down.

"I've put you next to Ginny, that's okay, right? I mean, Parvati's my maid of honour and Harry is obviously, um, Ronnie's best man so he'll be up at the table with us, but, if you want-"

"Yes, of course," Hermione interrupts, and without warning, throws her arms around Lavender's shoulders. "I'm happy for you."

She feels Lavender relax under their embrace.

And her heart cracks a little more.

.

She wakes the following Saturday with something akin to agony pooling in her chest.

The sun streams through her window, feeling ominously like a death sentence and she has to breathe and remind herself that this isn't the end of the world.

(But it _feels_ like it is.)

She dresses in robes of yellow and manages to pull her hair back into a bun after attacking it with Sleekeazy's Hair Potion.

She looks into the mirror and breathes.

It'll be okay.

(That's what she keeps telling herself.)

.

A knock at the door startles her; she's supposed to be meeting Ginny at the venue, so she's surprised to see Harry standing outside when she opens the door.

"Hi," she says as he smiles. "Shouldn't you be with Ron?"

"Yeah," he says and then folds his arms. "C'mon, Hermione, our best friend is getting married. You're going to be there too."

"Oh, Harry, I don't think that's a good idea," Hermione says and she already starts to close the door. "I'll just see you at the venue later."

"Look," Harry says and there's that hurt expression. "I know things ended badly between you two but-"

"It didn't end badly," Hermione whispers, her voice barely audible. "I guess we just sort of fell apart."

And, all of a sudden, it's May 1998 again, and Ron's becoming distant, and won't return her calls, and refuses to attend those therapy sessions she schedules, so they fight, and eventually he sighs and she bites her lip and something begins to fester.

"Hermione?"

Blinking in the beaming daylight, Hermione is pulled out of her memories.

Harry looks at her, that look that she's come to loathe, brimming over with sympathy and pity.

"Look," Harry says again. "You two are my best friends and I hate that you can barely even talk anymore. I haven't seen you guys in the same room for months. He misses you, you know. Please, just come and talk to him."

"Okay," Hermione agrees, but she already knows it's a bad idea.

.

Ron doesn't look much different when she sees him.

When he says hello, her heart almost stops in her throat, and Harry has to nudge her to get her to say anything.

"Hi!" She says, far too brightly, and immediately goes in for a hug. "How are you feeling?"

Ron shrugs.

"Nervous, you know? But happy." he looks at her, with something melancholic in his gaze. "I'm happy."

"Well, that's great," Hermione blurts out warmly and steps back. "Really. It's great."

"Yeah?" Ron says and Hermione can tell he's glad. "I've, um, missed you."

"Me too," Hermione says and she plasters on a smile and laughs at the relieved expression on Harry's face.

.

Later, she sits on the bench, next to Ginny, and tries not to feel like she's just lost her whole world and everything in it.

Ginny squeezes her hand when Lavender walks up the aisle.

And, then everything is blur and the vows are being said, and Hermione's loosing everything under a hurricane of colours.

Ron and Lavender kiss and everyone's clapping, Seamus Finnegan is whistling, Mrs Weasley's sobbing, and Hermione feels strangely hollow, like her heart and her lungs have disappeared from her chest.

As she looks over to the alter, she catches Ron looking at her, with something like bittersweetness painted in his eyes.

And she holds his gaze and, in that moment, she just breaks.

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_fin. _

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prompts:

hogwarts assignment 4, first aid, task 5: write about a broken heart.

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I can't believe I just did that to those poor teenagers. yeah, so I really love RonHermione but I was on an angst warpath and couldn't resist writing this.

anyway, if you liked it and would like to leave a review, please go ahead. I love receiving feedback!

thank you for reading! x


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